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Neurodiversity, Autism and Fireworks · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: It's not only animals who struggle with those loud, jarring noises and bright colors flashing in the sky. Some people, children especially, can also be sensitive to them. People who land somewhere on the neurodivergent spectrum, such as those diagnosed with autism, can have a hard time on the fourth of July. To gain a better insight into this, we spoke to physician Carrie Griffith at the center for New Growth in Arcata. Griffith is also a somatic psychotherapist experienced in treating people who have difficulty adapting to abrupt changes in their environment.
• 0:38
  Speaker B: So neurodivergence is a term or neurodiversity is a term that has really been gaining in popularity, and it's an umbrella term that refers to a lot of different diagnoses. So neurodivergence as a big term just means my brain processes things in a different way. So sometimes that can show up as a diagnosis or a clinical expression of aut. But there are sensory processing disorders. ADD and ADHD are also forms of neurodivergence. Autism itself means that there are often sensory integration difficulties. There may be intellectual processing difficulties, but not necessarily. And there may be some form of what might seem like social difficulties. What we're really talking about as we connect things like neurodivergence and autism to fireworks is we're talking about sensory processing difficulties difficulties. We're talking about the fact that loud noises, bright colors, if you're actually going someplace public, being around large groups of people, the sensory input of that is so much. So if you have a nervous system that works a little differently, that maybe has an internal dial that's turned up a little bit higher towards hypervigilance, towards having senses that are extra sensitive. So hearing is amplified for you 10 times what you're taking in through 80% of how we use our senses is through our eyes and our visual stimuli. If you're taking in a lot of input, it can overwhelm the nervous system, leading to, in children, leading to tantrums, leading to aggressive, violent kind of fits.
• 2:18
  Speaker A: Still, kids will be kids. And despite whatever challenges they are facing, they still might want to go and see the fireworks for themselves. And there is a way to make that happen as long as precautions are taken.
• 2:33
  Speaker B: One of the tricks, especially for children, but also for adults, is noise canceling headphones or earplugs. So if you really, really want to bring them to the event, when you're at the event, have things like those noise canceling headphones, have a weighted blanket, maybe sunglasses, or a hat with a brim, doing something to decrease the input from sound and from sight and then doing something to increase other forms of soothing stimuli for the senses. The other thing is before you even get to the event, if you are thinking about taking children who have some neurodivergence, really prepare them beforehand so talk about what fireworks are like. Consider watching videos of fireworks online. Set the expectation and also let them know beforehand that anything they experience is okay. It's okay if it's difficult for them and really let them know that if it's too hard it's okay to leave. Maybe you find a place to watch fireworks that's more on the periphery that's not so close to the center of the action. You could also let your child depending on their age really choose the spot that feels like it's going to be best for them and for their nervous system.
• 3:43
  Speaker A: That was Kari Griffith, a physician at the center for New Growth in Arcata. My name is Sigrid Bjorn reporting for KMUT.